Jewellers to Go for Day-Long Strike on February 10, 2016

Over 300 associations of Jewellery trade with over 100,000 shops across the country will observe a day-long token strike on February 10, 2016, to protect against Government’s ruling of imposing PAN Card proof on purchase of 2 lakhs and above. This restriction on jewellery buyers has already dent business volumes and the slowdown has affected jobs for millions of workers, artisans and small traders in the jewellery sector across pan India as their business turnover dropped over 30% since the imposition of restriction about a month ago.

Mr. G V Sreedhar, GJF Chairman, said, “This is a crisis situation for the entire industry to survive because the jewellers are losing customers mainly in small towns and rural areas where a majority of population don’t have PAN cards in their names. Our members and many of the jewellery Associations are on agitation path since they suffered losses of over 30 per cent in business transactions in last one month.  Prolong of such situation will lead to job losses for workers, artisans and employees. We are in touch with the Finance Ministry urging them to make the PAN Card mandatory on jewellery purchase of over Rs 10 lakh instead of the present Rs 2 lakh.”

Mr. Ashok Minawala, Director, “We strongly oppose this regularity measure which badly hit millions of jewellers and artisans employed in this industry.  GJF as an apex body is under tremendous pressure from its associations across the country to address the issue and discuss with the authorities. But things are not looking up and all associations are jointly discussing on protest plan across the nation and declared 10, February as a Token Strike for a day. The Pan Card restriction has discouraged majority semi-urban and rural jewellery buyers, who are engaged either in farming (no income tax obligation) or in small trade practices. With just 22.3 crore PAN cards issued in India, how can the industry will survive with such restrictions?”

In recent past, thousands of jewellers under the banner of various associations took out Candle protest march from January 18 onwards in over 60 cities and towns across India.

From January 1, 2016, PAN Card has been made mandatory for all transactions above Rs 2 lakhs in cash or through card in entire Gems & Jewellery sector. Such restriction of furnishing Pan Card for Rs 2 lakh and above purchase of jewellery will discriminate 70-80% of the jewellery buyers in the country. Today, people buy jewellery items not only for their daily uses but also for essential purposes like festive and marriages.

About GJF: 

GJF is a national trade federation established for the promotion and growth of gems and jewellery trade across India. It represents over 6,00,000 players comprising manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, laboratories, gemologists, designers and allied services to the domestic Gems & Jewellery industry. The Gems & Jewellery industry is a hand crafted and labour intensive with over 1 crore strong labour force engaged in the manufacturing of jewellery industry in the domestic sector. The domestic industry is estimated to be in the region of Rs. 2.51 lakh crores today with the potential to grow to Rs. 5 lakh crore by 2018. The Federation’s mission is to support and promote the progress and prosperity of all members in the gems and jewellery industry across India. GJF serves as an interface between the Government and the industry, providing regular news updates on Government notifications, rules and regulations, conducting national level programs and launching initiatives for trade promotion and development, partnering with educational and research institutes for skill development and promotion of gem and jewellery education, undertaking CSR activities on behalf of the trade, besides numerous other functions.